a white space node is a node.....

If you are sat on book and do <xsl:apply-templates/>
then
<book>
  <chapter>...</chapter>
  <chapter>...</chapter>
  <chapter>...</chapter>
</book>

processes a node set of 7 nodes, 4 of them being white space text nodes
and the chapters are at position 2 4 6.

MSXML by default throws away white space.

use xsl:strip-space to do the same or simpler if you only want to
process chapters, do
<xsl:apply-templates select="chapter"/>

David

_____________________________________________________________________
This message has been checked for all known viruses by Star Internet
delivered through the MessageLabs Virus Scanning Service. For further
information visit http://www.star.net.uk/stats.asp or alternatively call
Star Internet for details on the Virus Scanning Service.

 XSL-List info and archive:  http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list